convict
Americanverb (used with object)
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convicts,
present (3rd person singular)
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convicted,
past participle, past
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convicting
present participle
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to prove or declare guilty of an offense, especially after a legal trial.
to convict a prisoner of a felony.
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to impress with a sense of guilt.
noun
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convicts
plural
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a person proved or declared guilty of an offense.
-
a person serving a prison sentence.
adjective
verb
noun
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a person found guilty of an offence against the law, esp one who is sentenced to imprisonment
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a person serving a prison sentence
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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preconvictverb (used with object)
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reconvictverb (used with object)
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convictableadjective
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convictibleadjective
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convictiveadjective
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unconvictingadjective
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unconvictiveadjective
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convictivelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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convictsimple
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convictssimple
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have convictedperfect
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has convictedperfect
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am convictingprogressive
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are convictingprogressive
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is convictingprogressive
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have been convictingperfect progressive
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has been convictingperfect progressive
Past
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convictedsimple
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had convictedperfect
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was convictingprogressive
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were convictingprogressive
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had been convictingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of convict
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English verb convicten, from Latin convictus, past participle of convincere, equivalent to con- “with, together” + vic-, variant stem of vincere “to overcome” + -tus past participle suffix; Middle English noun convict “(a) convict,” adjective convict “convicted,” past participle of convicten “to convince” (or directly from Latin ); see con-, convince
Explanation
A convict is a person who has been found guilty — convicted — of a crime and is serving a sentence in prison. When you convict (accent on the second syllable) someone of a crime, you find them guilty. The person is then a convict (accent on the first syllable). When the person is released from jail, he's an ex-con, that is, he's not a convict any more.
Vocabulary lists containing convict
13th Amendment (1865)
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 20–25
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“That’s not a defense, but the reality is some jurors won’t want to convict because they feel sympathy to the defendant or they feel this is a waste of government resources.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Assistant Judge Advocate General Edward Legard had told the board: "The Crown has concluded that there is insufficient evidence upon which you can safely convict Colonel Shepherd of the charge she faces."
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Reddington suggested that the holdout juror did acknowledge doubt, but still wanted to convict anyway.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026
The verdict means that almost nine years since the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese authorities have failed to identify and convict the mastermind.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
And he felt a jury would be much less inclined to convict Reggie if the best the prosecution could do was show that Reggie was texting thirty seconds before the wreck.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
He had been placed in Atascadero State Hospital, a maximum-security prison for mentally ill convicts located between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2026
Even charges like the ones Rojas faces can be devastating, whether or not a jury ever convicts.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2026
"This court finds the accused guilty of all 21 charges and convicts the accused accordingly," Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said.
From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025
It is unclear what "exile" entails, though in other instances convicts have been sent to remote areas.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2025
Nobody could believe it back in 1826: a work crew of convicts, camping on the riverbank, actually induced to build their own prison.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Those convicted of espionage in Russia can be jailed up to 20 years in prison.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Krems noted his client had never been convicted of a crime.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Over the past 50 years, all prisoners who received death sentences were convicted of murder, though capital punishment was also used for rape convictions before that.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Since its establishment, the court has convicted 15 people, with four acquitted.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
The total ban on life-without-parole sentences for children convicted of non-homicides should have been the easiest decision to implement, but enforcing the Supreme Court's ruling was proving much more difficult than I had hoped.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Hoppock worries that by moving straight to deportation proceedings, the federal government has found a way to skip prosecuting and convicting.
From Salon ● May 14, 2026
It’s true that we don’t want juries convicting simply because they don’t like the defendant.
From Slate ● Apr. 22, 2026
The letter argued that the legal standard for convicting someone of a crime shouldn’t be used when deciding whether Khan should continue to serve as chief prosecutor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
He was found guilty of "conspiracy to commit rebellion" by the Supreme Court, which handed down the sentence at the same time as convicting him.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025
When Faye died, he knew instinctively that Kate was probably responsible, but he also knew he hadn’t much of any chance of convicting her, and a wise sheriff doesn’t butt his head against the impossible.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
